He is with you

by Ashley Elizabeth Petryshyn

I live in a bubble. Between my home, my job, my Church, and my favourite coffee shop my bubble is roughly 60 blocks wide. I see the same people everyday, I can even recognize the face of strangers on the bus on the way home. I can say hello to the cashiers at my grocery store and have them know who I am. Your bubble is where you feel comfortable. It is normally referred to a community.

When I watch the news and something is happening in the south side of the city it feels like it is worlds away. Because whatever thing is happening will affect a community there, usually with no residual effects that I can feel up on the north side. It feels like an adventure when I get to go south of the river and broaden my bubble.

I love going on trips outside of the city. I like weekends away in the mountains, I even like going to Calgary just to experience a little different culture. Which brings me to my newest adventure, two weeks away on vacation. I have driven through Alberta and BC to get to Seattle and then back to a week and a half in Vancouver. It is so eye opening to see all these new people going about their day to day business. To find stores that don't even exist in your country, to be using a different kind of currency, and have a totally different kind of weather. Yet all these people in this new place have all the problems people at home in my own bubble have. I saw women in heels running for the train, I saw colleagues getting take out for lunch and balancing bags, I even saw one or two spats between couples while out by the water. All these things that happen time zones away from my house, with people I have never met. I bet you there are 20-something girls here too that share struggles with me. I bet you some are walking around wishing their hair looked different today, even though it looks fine, that some are walking around wishing they were 10 pounds lighter, and some are wondering what coffee shop line Mr. Right is standing in. I walked around downtown Seattle watching everyone. In fact I probably freaked some people out for holding their gaze too long. It's okay though, they don't live in my bubble, so I'll probably never see them again anyway!

This brings me to my take away moment from this aspect of my trip. That while I am sitting in the comfort of my bubble, praying to my awesome God and there are so many other people in the world, some many other people that need his time and attention and yet he still answers my prayers in little north side Edmonton.

“Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's spirit dwells in you?” 1 Corinthians3:16

I have always read and been told that my God is a great God and he is a God of the people. It has been easy for me up to this point to recognize that he is good and see him work in my life and the lives of my friends, but to imagine that he does that for the people across the world is so overwhelmingly amazing. He is with you, in tiny towns, in big cities across the country, and on every continent. He is always with me, and with you, regardless of how far apart we are. That makes him great. So great. I am so glad to say that I am a child of this amazing God. And that he is with me however far out of my bubble I am.

“Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.” Deuteronomy 31:6